This weekend (Saturday, August 1) is my 10th anniversary.  I’ve got a short list of thoughts I’m finishing up (with the help of Mrs. Mcbob) and I’ll post it soon before the weekend hits.  Meanwhile, this is a shot of us this past June at Young Life’s Woodleaf.. where we actually met for the first time back in 199somethingorother… aren’t we just too cute?

I’ve been away for 6 weeks and just now getting back into the flow of work related things.  It’s generally a battle to settle back at home when I’ve been on the road, but returning to “normal” life after 6 weeks away has proven a bit more to deal with than I expected.  What I’m going through is often called “re-entry,” primarily because of our common desire to be astronauts and the burning sensation often associated with traveling to foreign places.. I’m told there is an ointment…

…Don’t google that.

Anyway, the more I reflect on what my actual difficulty is, the more I think it has to do with reorienting myself to a much faster pace of life than that I’d lived while I was gone.  For the last two weeks of May, Amy and I were in Hawaii with good friends on vacation.  The month of June was then spent at Young Life’s Woodleaf property where I was serving as a leader/mentor to college students who were also there to serve (more thoughts on this, and them, later).  Almost everything about my days over the past month and a half was organized around relationships; around people.  The pace of life here in my little office is set by the To Do List which currently looks like something Melville might have put together.

All of which harkens back to something a young Ethiopian man told a room full of christian ministers here in California this past May.  Reflecting on the un-relational nature of American living and christian ministry in particular, he said

“My people in Ethiopia thought you Americans were the richest people in the world, but then we realized you are poor because you have no time.”

And that afternoon in may the burning sensation was directly related to the sting of being slapped in the face with some African wisdom.

Here’s the thing about re-entry; it’s about the collision of ways to live and in that collision, there is wisdom about each of those ways of life.  In my case, the temptation is to consider the slower-paced, relationally-oriented life I lived for the past 44 days something unnatural.. a shadow of reality.  Whereas living beyond my own energies, half-awake from chasing my to do list and with little time for the things and people I actually care about is what is truly real.  But lying on my deathbed, I’m pretty convinced I won’t want to take one last look at all the crap I checked off my list.  I’m going to want my peeps around me.  I am probably, at that time, going to wonder what the hell kept me from organizing more of my life around those very people, slowing down enough to hear what they were saying and enjoy them.

We challenged our Summer Staff to remember what it was about their month that made it special, enjoyable and good; to commit to taking some of those patterns home and implementing them.  It looks as if this is my challenge; slow down and be with the people I love.

I am hoping that you’ve seen them; These ads floating around  touting huge financial gain from “doing nothing.”  Most of the time the ads come equipped with pics of random dude (face obscured for some reason) in the proximity of a Ferrari or a Benz.  The suddenly-wealthy person who posted the ad does so with an interesting mix of enthusiasm for sharing this wonderful new product and a disdain for people… always a great combo for sales.

Now, while these “get rich quick “ads are nowhere near as prevalent on Facebook as they were previously, this sexy beast to the left showed up on my page recently and reminded me of just why, with the help of a friend, I put together my own scam..er.. scheme.

Interestingly, when I submitted the fake ad to Facebook .. I was denied on grounds that… “(Facebook) does not accept advertising referencing, facilitating or promoting…scams, pyramid schemes,…or ‘get rich quick’ and other money making opportunities that offer compensation for little or no investment…”

*blinks* ..aaaalright… well, then…

Now, if you’ve seen one of the actual ad pages (having been awake at 3am and decided to see what would happen if you did click on the ad, you’ll probably enjoy our spoof a touch more.  Nonetheless, even the scam-uninitiated will find some enjoyment in my version.  Here’s the link: http://www.justinmcroberts.com/money/

At one point I remember reading something Thomas Merton wrote about the self being ones most potent adversary. Well..

..tonight in Warsaw, Indiana, I face myself.

I pulled into town about 8pm and headed straight to my hotel; a hotel chain I’ve had “encounters” with in the past… You might say that it is “not my favorite” hotel or that I “don’t like it” or even that it has often given me “the creeps.”  In an effort to stay above the board and avoid trash-talk, I will not reveal the name of this chain, but will heretofore refer to it as the “Hotel Wha?”

This particular “Hotel Wha?”, much like others in its national chain, lacks an exercise facility (running/working out is part of my regular routine and helps keep me focused etc..)  It also has a rather questionable breakfast set-up and is overall kinda old. Many of the rooms, including the one I am in currently, were previously smoking rooms and now have that smell that says “I’m not a smoking room.. (cough, cough… hack) what are you talking about? (cough, hack.. *awkward smile*)”.

Well..

..tonight in Warsaw, Indiana, I face myself.

In the morning, I will stand before the students at Grace College in the neighboring town of Winona to speak on behalf of the poorest of the poor; a populace who saw 14,000 children orphaned by HIV/AIDS just today; a populace for whom the “Hotel Wha?” would be a palace. In the morning, it will be March 11, a day Compassion International has set aside for the awareness of the Global Food Crisis, I which 1billion people are going without proper daily nutrition. Finally, and more immediately, it’s pouring outside, which I can see from my window and I cannot help but be reminded of pictures a friend of mine took in Haiti on a recent trip with Compassion; pictures in which entire villages were flooded from the downpour (an annual occurrence during the rainy season).

So I am faced with myself and have to look myself up and down wondering which person am I?  Am I someone who is sincerely perturbed by the stickiness of the carpet in my room?  Do I mean what I will say tomorrow? Or better yet, Do I have any right to say these things, challenging college kids to sacrifice and live more simply so that the least can simply live?  The strange answer to these questions is neither no or yes.  I am learning that the hallmark of Kingdom work is the way it transforms those who do it and that I am one such man whose life is being transformed.  So…

..tomorrow in Warsaw, Indiana I will face myself..

..and I will know that I am not fully who I will become; that I am telling the stories of the least of these because they need our help but also because I need to hear and tell these stories; I need to know these truths. So that, as I grow older I will grow more into a man who more fully reflects the things he knows and believes.  For now, and tonight in Warsaw, Indiana, I am simply thankful for “How great the poor are that, in their poverty, they would allow us the blessed opportunity to serve them.” -Mother Theresa

After posting Louis CK’s bit about technology and convenience, I got to thinking about what life might be like were things to seriously fall apart.  So, I present to you the Top 10 Things I’d Miss If The World Reverted To No-Tech

1.  COFFEE MAKER
“Seriously, bro?  That’s the first thing on your list?  You’re totally addicted to caffeine.”  Yes, bro.. Seriously.  And I don’t think i’d call it an addiction.. I’d rather think of it as a relationship.  You just don’t understand what we have, coffee and I.. You just DON’T get it and you never could.. JUST LET US BE!!  Now, I don’t even have one of those fancy coffee makers that grind beans for you and then takes the dog out to pee so I’ll have to add…

2. COFFEE BEAN GRINDER

3. MYSPACE…
Just kidding.

3.  INSTANT MESSENGER
To say “the internet” would be far too general.. But this is one function of the web that I really love.  After years of being on the road, most of my great friendships are elsewhere in the US; IM has been a trusty way to keep connected.

4.  MINI SPACE HEATERS
For a few years, I lived in the basement of a house built on a hill.  My roommate and I had no running water and no heat.  We spent about $40 on a Toastmaster space heater which we later dubbed “the little buddy” for the kind and generous way he kept us warm night after night.

5.  THE DAILY SHOW
Along with Kurt Vonnegut and Friedrich Buechner, Jon Stewart’s jocular and light-hearted handling of humanity’s foibles gives me a sense of normality I do not know what I’d do without.

6.  BASEBALL ON THE RADIO
I’d rather listen to a ballgame than watch on on TV any day.  It’s almost as good as being at the ballpark.  Then again, I can just recreate the magic of being at the park by listening to the game outside with headphones and spilling a beer on myself.

7.  INVISIBILITY CLOAK
I don’t even care if I ever get to use this… Just the thought that it (sorta) EXISTS!! I mean are you KIDDING ME? How cool is that?

8.  THE GEORGE FOREMAN GRILL
Just kidding.. But on that note..

8. CHEESEBURGER (W/BLUE CHEESE)
..Delectable.. Sure, these could be put together over an open flame under the big sky of open country… But I like the way Chili’s does it.

9.  SHAQUILLE O’NEIL’S TWEETS
If you use Twitter, you need Shaq.  Actually, You probably need Shaq no matter what.  He’s 7’1”, 310lb and has a self-deprecating sense of humor that gets funnier the more you know him.

10. MICROSOFT SONGSMITH
No explanation needed.

This is part of why I love observational comedy.  In the middle of laughing my face off, I am struck by the profundity of the comedian’s thinking.  This is one of the best routine’s I’ve heard since early Carlin.